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Friday, December 11, 2015

Vatican City, 11 December 2015 (VIS) –
In the afternoon of 7 December the Holy Father signed the following
Rescriptum ex audientia on the implementation of and compliance with
the new law on procedures for the declaration of nullity of marriage.

“The entry into force – which
happily coincides with the Jubilee of Mercy – of the Apostolic
Letters in the form of Motu proprio 'Mitis Iudex Dominus' and 'Mitis
et Misericors Iesus' of 15 August 2015, given to bring justice and
mercy on the truth of the bond to those who have experienced the
failure of their marriage, necessitates among other things the need
to harmonise the renewed procedures for marriage annulment with the
regulations of the Roman Rota, awaiting their reform.

The recently concluded Synod of Bishops
strongly exhorted the Church to stoop to the 'most fragile sons and
daughters, marked by wounded and lost love', restoring trust and
hope.

The laws that now come into effect are
intended precisely to show the Church's closeness to wounded
families, desiring that the many who experience matrimonial failure
are reached by Christ's healing work through ecclesiastical
structures, in the hope that they may again discover themselves to be
God's missionaries to their brethren, for the good of the institution
of the family.

Acknowledging the jurisdiction of the
Roman Rota as the ordinary court of appeal of the Apostolic See, and
also its office in safeguarding the unity of the jurisprudence (art.
126 para. 1 Pastor bonus) and contributing to the continuing
formation of pastoral workers in the Tribunals of the local Churches,
I decree the following:

I.

The aforementioned laws for the reform
of marriage annulment procedures repeal or waive any contrary law or
regulation currently in force – general, particular or special –
eventually also approved in a specific form (such as, for example,
the Motu proprio 'Qua cura' given by my predecessor Pius IX in times
very different from the present).

II.

1. In marriage annulment cases before
the Roman Rota, doubt must be cast according to the long-standing
formula: An constet de matrimonii nullitate, in casu.

2. There shall be no appeal against the
decisions of the Rota in matters of the nullity of sentences or
decrees.

3 Appeal for the N.C.P. (nova causae
propositio) is not permitted before the Roman Rota after one of the
parties has contracted a new canonical marriage, unless the decision
can be demonstrated to be manifestly unjust.

4. The Dean of the Roman Rota has the
authority to dispense with the Normae Romanae Rotae Tribunalis in
procedural matters for a serious cause.

5. As wished by the Patriarchs of the
Oriental Churches, the territorial tribunals shall have jurisdiction
over the iurium cases connected with marriage annulment cases
submitted to the judgement of the Roman Rota at appeal.

6. The Roman Rota shall decide cases
according to the principle of evangelical gratuity, that is by ex
officio patronage, notwithstanding the moral obligation of the more
affluent faithful to offer a just contribution towards the causes of
the poor.

May the faithful, especially the
wounded and unhappy, look to the new Jerusalem that is the Church as
'the peace of justice, the glory of God’s worship' and may it be
granted to them, finding again the open arms of the Body of Christ,
to sing the Psalm of the Exiles: 'When the Lord restored the fortunes
of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with
laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy'”.

Vatican City, 11 December 2015 (VIS) –
Msgr. Pio Vito Pinto, dean of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota,
explained the Holy Father's Rescriptum ex audientia on the new law
for marriage annulment procedures in an article published this
afternoon in “L'Osservatore Romano”.

“In the introductory report at the
opening of the Ordinary Synod, Cardinal Erdo outlined one of the
chief aims of the synodal meeting. Indeed, the general rapporteur
stated that by virtue of the sacrament of marriage, the Christian
family becomes an asset for the Church, but its inclusion in the
context of the Church is also beneficial to the family, which is
helped spiritually and community even in difficulties, and it helps
to protect the marriage union and discern the respective obligations
or eventual shortcomings.

The reality and the mission of the
Church as defined by her divine founder, Jesus, therefore become
clear to the Synod Fathers. The Church in via is not the Church of
the perfect, but the community of the faithful who acknowledge
themselves daily as sinners and therefore in need of conversion,
which is the strength of Pope Francis' ecclesiology.

The Synod thus showed that the large
number of faithful who are wounded or in an uneasy relationship in
terms of their adherence – in the practice of the faith – with
the truth of the Gospel, are not a burden, but an opportunity, that
may drive many of these 'wounded' to become, once reconciled and
healed, true missionaries of the beauty of the sacrament of marriage
and the Christian family. Again, with reference to Cardinal Erdo's
report, the organic integration of the marriage and the family of
Christians in the reality of the Church also requires that the
ecclesial community pay merciful and realistic attention to the
faithful who live together or live in civil marriage only since they
do not feel prepared to celebrate the sacrament, given the
difficulties that such a choice may result in today. If the community
can prove itself to be welcoming to these people, in various
situations of life, and clearly present the truth about marriage, it
will help these faithful to come to a decision in favour of
sacramental marriage.

The Rescriptum signed by Pope Francis
on the reform process, introduced by the two Apostolic Letters issued
Motu Proprio on 15 August 2015, clearly shows that legal reform is
perfectly consistent with the ecclesiological vision characteristic
of his papacy as gradually outlined in his teaching from the
beginning, and which he himself has clearly confirmed in the acts of
these recent weeks.

In the homily of Mass for the opening
of the Jubilee year on 8 December, the Pontiff described the
fulfilment of Vatican Council II: 'A genuine encounter between the
Church and the men and women of our time. An encounter marked by the
power of the Spirit, who impelled the Church to emerge from the
shoals which for years had kept her self-enclosed so as to set out
once again, with enthusiasm, on her missionary journey. It was the
resumption of a journey of encountering people where they live: in
their cities and homes, in their workplaces. Wherever there are
people, the Church is called to reach out to them and to bring the
joy of the Gospel'.

Earlier still, in his important
discourse commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the institution
of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis offered a summary of conciliar
ecclesiology, showing how the hierarchical role of the Roman Pontiff
is dedicated to service, presenting him as the supreme witness of the
fides totius Ecclesiae, guarantor of the obedience to and compliance
of the Church with the will of God, Christ's Gospel and the Tradition
of the Church.

The papal Rescript published today
rests on these ecclesiological bases. It is divided into two parts,
for the interpretation and integration of the two Motu Proprio.

In the first, because every
epoch-making law, such as the law to reform the procedures for
marriage annulment, meets understandable resistance, the Pope wished
to emphasise, as St. John Paul II did with the promulgation of the
Code of Canon Law of 1983, that the law has been promulgated and must
be complied with (see the apostolic constitution 'Sacrae disciplinae
leges'). The rescript of Pope Francis today, like the promulgation of
the Code of St. John Paul II, obeys the lex suprema, the salus
animarum, of which the successor of Peter is the first teacher and
servant.

The second part of the Rescript
specifically relates to the Roman Rota as the apostolic Tribunal,
which has always been distinguished by wisdom in its legal decisions,
of which it is an expression of the generic doubt (whereas in the
lower courts there remains the obligation of the specific doubt, such
as for example the exclusion of offspring); expressing, from the
perspective of ecclesial diakonia, the concern for justice in its
dual sacredness: on the one hand, the defence of the truth itself of
the marriage bond, and on the other the right of the baptised to
receive from the Church the prompt and free declaration of this truth
of the bond itself”.

- accepted the resignation from the
office of auxiliary of the diocese of San Bernardino, U.S.A.,
presented by Bishop Rutilio Juan Del Riego Janez upon reaching the
age limit.

- appointed Msgr. Rolf Steinhauser as
auxiliary of the archdiocese of Cologne, (area 6,181, population
5,400,000, Catholics 2,056,173, priests 1,095, permanent deacons 310,
religious 1,841), Germany. The bishop-elect was born in Cologne,
Germany in 1952 and was ordained a priest in 1977. He has served in a
number of pastoral roles, including head of youth pastoral ministry
in Bonn, director of the office for youth pastoral ministry of the
archdiocesan curia of Cologne, parish priest and dean of the city of
Dusseldorf. He is currently resident canon of the Metropolitan
chapter of Cologne and director of the Edith Stein House for
Spiritual Exercises.

- given his assent to the decision of
the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church to erect
the eparchy of Kamyanets-Podilskyi of the Ukrainians at Khmelnitskyi
with territory taken from the archieparchy of Ternopil-Zboriv, making
it a suffragan of the same metropolitan Church.